Navy plane crashes in Washington state, three killed...

Three killed when Navy plane crashes in Washington state

Didn't see this posted anywhere yet...

(CNN) -- Three Navy crew members died when their EA-6B Prowler crashed Monday morning about 50 miles west of Spokane, Washington, the service said.

The plane crashed at about 8:45 a.m. PT, sometime after it took off for a training flight from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in northwestern Washington.

With respect to the families, the names of the service members have been withheld. As a former sailor myself I share in their grief.

Anchors Away!

The crash is under investigation, according to the Navy.

3 Killed in Navy Crash

reply to post by Cosmic911


Too sad . Fair winds and following seas.

a shipmate

reply to post by Cosmic911


It was a VAQ-129 aircraft. They supply fleet replacements, out of Whidbey Island.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I have some posts in this thread about them, and the other EA-6B squadrons.

Prayers goin' up for family from another sailor...

reply to post by Cosmic911


One of the loudest planes I've ever been around. Standing next to one taking off on the flight deck of a carrier will shake the fillings out of your teeth. Anyways, I always hate to hear things like this... I have seen my fair share of crashes in my day, mostly F-14's and one F/A-18

reply to post by Cosmic911


Explanation: S&F!



May they R.I.P!

Personal Disclosure: I am a bit shocked to find out that the Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler doesn't have ejection seats! :shk:

Especially as the now retired 4 seater S-3 Viking did have them!

Photo of the trials of the ejection seats of the (then) new Lockheed S-3 Viking at the U.S. Navy Naval Weapons Center at China Lake, California (USA), in 1971.



But returning to the possible reasons for this unfortunate and tragic incident ...

Quoted from the wiki on the Prowler ...

The EA-6B Prowler is powered by two turbojet engines, and it is capable of high subsonic speeds. Due to its extensive electronic warfare operations, and the aircraft's age (produced until 1991), the EA-6B is a high-maintenance aircraft, and it also has undergone more frequent equipment upgrades than any other aircraft in the Navy or Marine Corps.

... I wonder if this could be possibly related to the sequester cutting the US military budget and thereby forcing a cutting of corners in regards to maintainance protocols?

reply to post by OmegaLogos


It does. They just fly their missions down in the weeds where if something goes wrong, you don't have time to get out. It uses the GRU-7EA based on the GRU-7 that the A-6 had.

Exhibit A:

global.fncstatic.com... shington_navy_plane_crash_031113.jpg

Plane ?

Or no plane.

Look familiar?

reply to post by ManOfHart


Your link doesn't work. You might want to use the "link" tab to put it in.

reply to post by Zaphod58


I am sorry, "they" must be fixing links already.

Google the info and it will come.

Maybe someone can upload it before ( sounds funny I know) "they" remove it

reply to post by Zaphod58


Explanation: St*rred!

Thanks for denying my ignorance ... and my poor form for relying on wiki which didn't mention any ejection seats at all. :shk: [I also realized this when I reread the article and it mentioned no paracutes had deployed ... making me question myself and the wiki.]

Since it does have ejection seats ,which I am assuming are zero-zero type ejection seats, then what ever occured happened very very fast and if they were flying very low [

reply to post by ManOfHart


Copy your link you want to use, click on the "link" tab above the reply window, type something for what you want us to see (I recommend "source" or something like that), insert the link into the box, and click ok. Then you get a short hyperlink that we can click on.

Although I suspect you're talking about the crash site.









And yes there was a plane. What's left of it is in the dark black spot of the crash site. It was flying low and fast (fast for the type anyway) and impacted at a fairly shallow angle and buried what's left of the main fuselage.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Thankyou for uploading the photo.
I followed you directions but to no luck.
This photo is important to the folks that are investigating this crash.

reply to post by ManOfHart


I've seen bigger planes than this leave just as little debris as this. I've read up on so many NTSB reports with fairly large aircraft (up to Boeing 737 size) that left very few if any recognizable pieces behind. A couple of crashes, the first words from the investigators upon reaching the scene were "Where's the crash site?" because there was nothing.

An aircraft similar to this crashed after entering a vertical dive and reaching near Mach 1. They found the engines several feet down, and compressed to under 3 feet long. They were the biggest pieces of wreckage found.

reply to post by OmegaLogos


Bird strike is the most common. Even if they weren't flying into the sun, it happens at the altitude they fly at. You get a hawk or a vulture, and their instinct is to dive, even if they're already above whatever threat they perceived. At higher altitudes, and slower speeds, you have time to react. At 3-400 feet and high speed, you get hit with a bird, you react instinctively, and you just plowed into the ground.

reply to post by ManOfHart


Explanation: St*rred! [both your posts]

I concur on its importance!

I have already determined from the limited few shadows in the picture that the East is to the Top of the picture and the North is to the Left of the picture.

Personal Disclosure: I am trying to locate this place on Google Earth to take a screengrab and upload it.

Edited to add ... I think I have identified the exact field into which the Growler crashed!

The Original Picture supplied above ...



And my screengrab of where I think it has crashed.





And I think they look very similar.

Originally posted by OmegaLogos
I am a bit shocked to find out that the Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler doesn't have ejection seats! :shk:

The Wikipedia page for ejection seats shows a picture of a rocket propelled ejection seat from the cockpit of a EA-6B Prowler.

An Aviation Structural Mechanic works on an ejection seat removed from the cockpit of an EA-6B Prowler aboard USS John C. Stennis.

en.wikipedia.org...

Another page shows several photos of EA-6B Prowler seat installations: www.ejectionsite.com...

It would be sad if this particular Prowler had never been upgraded...

USS Kitty Hawk Landing (from the front right seat)

This video is from the front cockpit of an EA-6B Prowler on the first half of the VR-1355 low-level in Western Washington. We're flying 500 feet above the ground at an average speed of 420 kts. It was filmed in March of 2010

EA-6B Prowler catapult launch (front seat)

Explanation: So IMO, there are 4 possible reasons for this crash ...

In order of most likely to least likely IMO ok.

Bird Strike! - At 600+mph and at very low altitude [lets assume 300m and not the 3-400ft (110m aprox) mentioned by Zaph] that is 1 second from impact with the deck!

[less than 0.5 seconds if using Zaphs figures]

Pilot Error! - Possibly due to fatigue caused by Daylights Savings, which just occured in the USA, and or flying into/towards the sun.

Maintainance Foul Up! - Possibly due to budgetary restrictions that came about under the very recent US budget sequester.

Shot Down! - Highly unlikely but possible in this era of the War on Terror etc.

Or any combination of the above.

Other factors ...

Had a wingman, which mostly rules out no#4 and being shot down!

The Navy informed Congress that the wingman of the crashed plane reported that no parachutes were deployed.

Was on a low-level navigation training mission which confirms that the pilot had little to no time to react.

The Prowler was "engaged in a low-level navigation training mission," the Navy told Congress. Whidbey Island officials said the cause of the accident was under investigation.

Personal Disclosure: ...
reply to post by Murgatroid

 

Starred! Cheers for that confirmation that I was way wrong ok!

edit on 12-3-2013 by OmegaLogos because: Edited to fix broken emoticon bbcode.

reply to post by OmegaLogos


In the civilian service of air medical EMS, in which we have had set records for amount of crashes in the past couple years, the overwhelming cause was pilot error; mostly poor weather-making decisions.

To Zaphod: Having spent years and years at 1000 to 2000 feet (prime bird strike altitude) we were always instructed to let the birds do the evasive maneuvers, not us, since birds are naturally the king of their domain.

reply to post by Cosmic911


That's what low level pilots in the military are told to do too, but if they even see them it goes against everything their brain tells them to do.

One of the best quotes I've heard about it was in Force of Eagles by Richard Hermann. The WSO of an F-111 told the pilot, after the pilot mentioned birds, "We have a contract with them. The contract says we climb, and they dive." The natural instinct of a bird is to dive when they're threatened.